SEP26

1917 - Death of Fritz Gustav August Kosmahl, German WWI flying ace, from wounds received in action.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Kosmahl - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/kosmahl.php

1918 - Death of William Benson Craig, Canadian WWI flying ace, killed in action in his Sopwith Camel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Benson_Craig - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/craig2.php

1918 - French WWI fighter ace René Fonck shot down 6 German aircrafts on that day.

http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/france/fonck.php

1918 - German WWI fighter ace Franz Büchner shot down 4 SPAD XIII on that day.

http://theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/buchner.php

1919 - Birth of Carlo Negri, Italian WWII pilot.

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_Negri

1919 - 1st flight of the Spad S-28, French single seat biplane prototype for speed and distance records.

http://aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=4138

1921 - 1st flight over 200 mph (322 km/h) is made by Sadi Lecointe in a Nieuport-Delage NiD 29.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_airspeed_record

1926 - 2 German Junkers G-24 land back in Berlin from Peking. It was initially meant that they would fly all the way from Berlin to Shanghai, but they were prevented by military conflicts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junkers_G_24#Design_and_development

1927 - The Schneider Trophy race, flown at Venice, Italy, is Won by Flight Lt. S.N Webster (UK) in a Supermarine S5 at 453.2 km/h (281.7mph).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Webster

1932 - Birth of Clifton Curtis 'C.C.' Williams, USMC test pilot and NASA astronaut.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifton_Williams

1933 - Death of William John Charles Kennedy-Cochran-Patrick, Scottish WWI fighter ace, founder of Aircraft Operating Company of South Africa Pty Ltd, Killed in his de Havilland DH.84 Dragon which stalled out at 250 feet (76 m) after making a steep turn.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kennedy-Cochran-Patrick - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/scotland/kennedy.php

1936 - The Breguet-Dorand Gyroplane Laboratoire, Early french helicopter, set an altitude record of 156 m with Maurice Claisse at controls

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyroplane_Laboratoire - http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/breguet-dorand.php

1937 - Death of Emma Lilian Todd, American self-taught inventor, identified as the 1st woman in the world to design airplanes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._Lilian_Todd

1938 - Birth of Michael Vickers Love, American vietnam war pilot, USAF-NASA test pilot.

http://www.astronautix.com/astros/lovchael.htm - http://www.hannabasinmuseum.com/love-michael-v-killed-in-the-line-of-duty.html

1939 - 1st Luftwaffe aircraft is shot down during operations against the UK. A Dornier Do18D flying boat of 2/Küstenfliegergruppe 506 is shot down by a Blackburn Skua of No.803 Squadron, Fleet Air Arm, operating from the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, north of the Great Fisher Bank. The crew of the Do18 are rescued by the destroyer HMS Somali and the aircraft, which was still afloat, is sunk by gunfire.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/803_Naval_Air_Squadron

1939 - 1st flight of the Levasseur PL 108, French carrier born 3 seat Torpedo bomber biplane, prototype evolution of the PL 10 series.

http://aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=9447 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levasseur_PL.10

1944 - The Kommando Nowotny, 1st WWII Luftwaffe jet fighter unit for testing and establishing tactics for the Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter, is formed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kommando_Nowotny

1948 - Birth of Vladimír Remek, 1st Czechoslovak in space and 1st cosmonaut from a country other than the Soviet Union or the US.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladim%C3%ADr_Remek

1951 - 1st flight of The de Havilland DH.110 Sea Vixen, twin boom British two-seat jet fighter of the Fleet Air Arm (the air component of the Royal Navy)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Sea_Vixen

1953 - Mike Lithgow broke the world absolute speed record, reaching a speed of 737.7 mph (1,187 km/h) with a Supermarine Swift F4.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermarine_Swift#Operational_history

1954 - Death of Charles Humphrey Kingsman Edmonds, British naval aviator during WWI and a senior commander in the RAF during WWII. He made the 1st ever aerial torpedo attack on a ship.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Edmonds

1955 - The sole SIPA S-300R, French twin seat low wing turbojet trainer prototype, claimed to be the 1st of its kind anywhere, is destroyed following a spin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIPA_S.300

1955 - The Sole Folland Midge, British small, swept-wing subsonic light fighter aircraft originally developed as a concept demonstrator for the successful Folland Gnat, is destroyed in a crash.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folland_Midge

1958 - A Boeing B-52D Stratofortress set a world speed record of 560.705 miles per hour (487 kn, 902 km/h) over a 10,000 kilometers (5,400 nmi, 6,210 mi) closed circuit without a payload, while another one established a world speed record of 597.675 miles per hour (519 kn, 962 km/h) over a 5,000 kilometer (2,700 nmi, 3,105 mi) closed circuit without a payload.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-52_Stratofortress#Introduction

1965 - Death of James Fitzmaurice, Irish aviation pioneer. He was a member of the crew of the Bremen, which made the 1st successful Trans-Atlantic aircraft flight from east to West.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Fitzmaurice_(pilot)

1965 - 1st flight of The Ling-Temco-Vought LTV A-7 Corsair II, American carrier-based subsonic light attack aircraft.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTV_A-7_Corsair_II

1969 - 1st flight of the Aerospatiale SA.330F Puma, Initial civilian export production version of the french four-bladed, twin-engined medium transport/utility helicopter.

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%C3%A9rospatiale_SA330_Puma#SA.330_Puma - http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/puma.php

1970 - Death of Pietro Sordi, Italian AViator and WWI pilot.

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pietro_Sordi

1973 - Concorde made its 1st non-stop crossing of the Atlantic in a record-breaking time of 3 hours, and 32 minutes at an average speed of 954 mph (1,535 kph).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/26/newsid_2539000/2539049.stm

1973 - Texas International Airlines Flight 655 Convair 600 crashed into Black Fork Mountain, Arkansas while flying in bad weather, killing all 11.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_International_Airlines_Flight_655

1976 – A USAF Boeing KC-135A-BN Stratotanker of the 46th Air Refueling Squadron, Strategic Air Command, on a routine tanker training mission crashed in a densely wooded swampy area near Alpena, Michigan, after the crew became distracted by a cabin pressurization problem, killing 15 of the 20 on board.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_KC-135_Stratotanker#Accidents

1977 - Japan Airlines Flight 715 McDonnell Douglas DC-8 crashed on approach into the side of a hill 4 miles from Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport near an estate called Ladang Elmina, killing 34 over 79.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Airlines_Flight_715

1978 - 1st flight of the DHC-3-T Turbo-Otter, turboprop version of the canadian single-engined, high-wing, propeller-driven, STOL aircraft.

http://canadianaviationhistory.pbworks.com/w/page/13801125/On%20this%20day%20in%20Canadian%20Aviation%20History%20September

1980 - 1st flight of The Shanghai Y-10 (Y - Yunshuji - Transporter), Chinese 4 engined VIP transport jet aircraft.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Y-10

1980 - Soyuz 38 is back on earth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_38

1981 - Death of Bùi Thanh Liêm, Vietnam People's Air Force pilot, 1st Vietnamese and 1st Asian in space, killed in a MiG-21 aeroplane crash during a training flight over the Gulf of Tonkin off the coast of northern Vietnam.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bui_Thanh_Liem

1981 - 1st flight of The Boeing 767-200, American mid-size, wide-body twin-engine jet airliner.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_767

1983 - Soyuz T-10-1 mission (often called Soyuz T-10a in the West) was intended to visit the Salyut 7 space station, is destroyed on the launch pad by fire. The launch escape system of the Soyuz spacecraft fired two seconds before the launch vehicle exploded, saving the crew.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_T-10-1

1985 - Soyuz T-13, spaceflight mission transporting personnel to the Russian space station Salyut 7, is back on earth. 1st time a spacecraft had docked with a 'dead' space station, and the 1st time such a station had been returned to operational status following repairs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_T-13

1987 - Romanian pilot Marian Smighelski, a student pilot in his 3d year at the Flight Academy at Boboc defected in Turkey with his Albatross L-39ZA

http://www.acig.info/CMS/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=187

1991 - Launch of Anik E1, Canadian geostationary communications satellite.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anik_(satellite)

1992 - A Nigerian Air Force Lockheed C-130H Hercules encountered engine problems just after take off loosing engine N°1, then N°2 and finally N°3 before crashing near Lagos, Nigeria, killing all 158

http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19920926-1

1992 - 1st flight of the GROEN Hawk one, American autogyro.

http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/groen_hawk.php

1993 - Launch of SPOT 3, French high-resolution, optical imaging Earth observation satellite system, Along with Stella, Healthsat 2, Posat 1, Eyesat 1 Kitsat 2 anbd ITAMsat.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPOT_(satellite) - http://www.astronautix.com/thisday/sepber26.htm

1996 - STS-79, Space Shuttle Atlantis mission to Mir, is back on earth

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-79

1997 - Garuda Indonesia Flight 152, Airbus A300B4-220 flying from Jakarta, crashed in Sibolangit, 18 miles (29 km) short of Medan airport in low visibility, killing all 234 on board

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garuda_Indonesia_Flight_152

1997 - Launch of STS-86, Space Shuttle Atlantis mission to the Mir space station.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-86

1999 - Death of Mark Hanna, RAF air force pilot, Managing Director and co-founder of the Old Flying Machine Company along with his father Ray, displaying vintage aircrafts all around the world, One of Britain’s most experienced display pilots of historic military aircraft. Killed from injuries after his Hispano Buchon, a Spanish-built version of the WWII German Messerschmitt Bf-109 fighter, caught fire on final approach and crashed at Sabadell near barcelona.

http://www.ofmc.co.uk/rayandmark.aspx

2002 - Death of Nils Ivar Bohlin, Swedish inventor who invented the 3-point safety belt while working at Volvo, aircraft designer for SAAB who also helped to develop ejection seats.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nils_Bohlin

2008 – Swiss pilot and inventor Yves Rossy becomes the 1st person to fly a jet engine-powered wing across the English Channel, in 9 minutes 7 seconds, reaching a speed of 299 km/h (186 mph) during the crossing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_pack#Flights - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yves_Rossy